Modern Marketing Engine

Vengreso is a consulting company that provides
resources for professionals in the sales and marketing industry. They also
produce podcasts that discuss sales and marketing in the digital age on their
bi-weekly podcast, Modern Marketing
Engine. This informative podcast, hosted by Bernie Borges, discusses topics about marketing along with a guest
speaker.

When crafting copy to convince customers to
take an action, words are important; messaging is important. Borges and
Peterson argue that the difference between one or two words can impact customer
perception.

According to Peterson, sales has trouble
finding media in the world of big data; it is data rich, but theory poor. On
the other hand, marketing is theory rich, but data poor; meaning it is hard to
prove the theories right. His company, Corporate Visions, fund studies that
produce evidence-based research which they summarize in their ‘state of the
conversation’ report.

They surveyed 1200 marketers and sales
professionals: 47 per cent of respondents say they “used we-phrases to position
themselves as a trusted partner” to a client, while 40 per cent “used
you-phrases in a focused way to transfer ownership to the customer” and 7 per
cent did not pose an opinion on it. However, when asked which phrasing is more
effective, 52 per cent said you-phrasing as it is customer-focused and allows
customers to see their role in a story.

There exists some uncertainty among marketers
and sales professionals on the right approach to capture a customer, yet most
of them agreed that you-phrasing is more effective. They conducted two studies
to compare copy using we-phrasing (i.e. ‘we can do this for you’) to
you-phrasing (i.e. ‘you will be able to do this’) in an email and a landing
page to see which works better.

In the first, they sent almost identical cold
emails to “unsuspecting prospects”: the email outlines the same benefits and it
is the same length. However, the difference was the we/you phrasing. They set
out to test interest level and urgency. “Participants who received the
you-phrasing felt 20 per cent more responsible for solving the problem than
those who received the we-phrasing,” Peterson revealed. And participants felt
“13 per cent more strongly that they needed to take action.”

You-phrase
recipients felt more compelled to take action and they felt like they needed to
solve the problem.

In the second study, they wanted to measure
interest and intention to buy. The study revealed 11 per cent of participants
who received the you-phrasing were more convinced to make a purchase and 10 per
cent being more likely to purchase. Thus, this proves how powerful the
you-phrase is, since it can sway and even persuade a customer.

“The journey with the customer evolves over
time,” Borges says. However, if marketers don’t understand the customer’s way
of thinking, they will always be behind.

Personalization is important—it makes people feel wanted and pushes them to move beyond the
status quo. The key, however, is crafting copy that does it right.

Peterson suggests taking a look at recent
emails comparing the usage of you-phrasing versus we-phrasing to see which performs
better. He mentions that even starting with ‘you’ helps the marketer get into
the customer’s mindset; the you-phrasing compels “you have no choice, but to
get into the customer’s head.”

As a CCIT
student who has taken various marketing and advertising courses, I found
the information covered in the podcast quite helpful. The discussions about
techniques, evidence, and psychological aspects aided in my understanding of
marketing and the reason why I should implement certain strategies. In this
episode in particular, the podcast explained simple concepts and backed it up
with research. A lot of things we learn in university are theory, but having
professionals prove the legitimacy of the theories is helpful in crafting
digital marketing campaigns of my own.